Protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

This appeared in Akron Beacon Journal: Republicans in Congress have renewed efforts to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. They are seeking to use the federal budget as their vehicle, and they have the support of the Trump White House.

The last time they made such a bid, they failed a dozen years ago. Little has changed since, the refuge still a national treasure, worthy of protection as wilderness, its preservation part of the obligation of one generation to the next.

The budget plan approved by the Senate last week calls for raising an additional $1 billion during the next decade through the leasing of federal lands. That includes the 19.6 million acres of the refuge in the remote northeast portion of Alaska, the drilling activity targeted for 1.5 million acres along the coastal plain.

The congressional push has been complemented by the Interior Department now seeking to modify regulations dating to the 1980s and pave the way to drilling activity.

The first step in drilling activity involves seismic studies to determine the potential for oil and gas production. Would companies jump to launch evaluations? With oil at roughly $50 per barrel, they probably would stay away, according to many analysts.

More, David Yarnold of the National Audubon Society recently told the Washington Post that the federal government would likely collect just $9 million in auctioning drilling rights on the coastal plain.

If the numbers don’t work, and thus the promises of jobs and growth, what is the rush? Better yet, why disrupt these precious lands under any circumstances?

Already 40 per cent of the refuge has been declared wilderness, or out of reach for development. If anything, the remainder deserves the same protection. The refuge has been called the American Serengeti, the nesting place for hundreds of species of migratory birds, home to polar bears, wolves and a huge Porcupine caribou herd. It is rich in wild and complex habitats, including lagoons, beaches and marshes, mountains, alpine tundra, forests and many species of fish and mammals, marine and land.

It belongs untouched.